The Ming Army of Dalanshan, since its establishment, has experienced several defeats, but it still has set a record of two captures of Shangyu County and several defeats of the Qing Army. The first battle of Siming Lake www.biquge.info Pen, Qu and Ge, with the Simingshan coalition army at that time, was almost wiped out, but the Nantang Battalion, the sixth battalion with the shortest army, developed step by step, forming the Zhejiang Ming Army with tens of thousands of iron armor and covering an area of six prefectures.

At the same time, the Dalanshan Ming army was also the most successful one among the righteous armies formed by the anti-Qing soldiers in eastern Zhejiang-more than 3,000 troops at the time of the victory, and the 800-mile Simingshan area listened to its orders, which made "the city of Leh in eastern Zhejiang closed for the day", that is, the righteous army of Zhang Huangyan, Li Changxiang, Feng Jingdi and other troops were also attached to it. The momentum is huge, and it can not only be self-sufficient, but also can achieve strict military discipline, and it is still an army formed by scholars, which will naturally safeguard the interests of scholars, and will inevitably be a perfect army in the eyes of scholars.

It's just that in the process of recruiting comrades to rebuild such an army, it was not as smooth sailing as Huang Zongxi imagined.

"Taichong, don't you think you're doing this too much?"

It was Lu Yuding of Yin County who said this, Huang Zongxi came here to be familiar with him, and Lu Yuding was a man who fought for righteousness and squandered money, and was quite prestigious among the scholars in Ningbo. But when he explained the purpose of his trip and the reason why it was so, he received such an answer.

"Zhou Ming, when Wanxun was alive, the army of the king of Dalanshan was strictly disciplined, and he never disturbed the people, so that the Tartar government could not leave the county, and the small officials did not dare to go to the countryside to urge the department, and the gentry and large households within a radius of hundreds of miles were willing to fund. But now Chen Wen, military discipline is still strict, but this eunuch remnant is persecuting the gentry with a knife, and Yu Wanxun's ambition back then has gone astray! ”

"Misguided? Tai Chong, do you mean that in addition to preferential exemptions, the gentry can continue to evade taxes and corrupt state affairs? I think it's those scum who don't know the so-called that have gone astray, and Furen is just measuring acres of land and letting them pay taxes according to the ancestral system, there is nothing wrong with that. ”

The Lu family is a big family in Yin County, there is a lot of land in the countryside, and there are many industries in the city, and the wealth of his family is famous in Ningbo. As far as Huang Zongxi knows, the Lu family also evaded taxes like other gentry in the late Ming Dynasty to accumulate such belongings. Because of this, after listening to Lu Yuding's rhetorical question, Huang Zongxi was stunned on the spot, unable to understand what was happening at all, and even thought that his ears were hearing poorly.

Huang Zongxi stood here, but Lu Yuding continued to speak as if talking to himself: "Over the years, I have always been thinking that the imperial court has increased the dispatch again and again, and even withdrew the post station, forcing out Li Zicheng and other demon kings of the mixed world, in the final analysis, it is nothing more than no money. ”

However, over the years, the gentry in various places have evaded taxes, and the commercial taxes on the southeast coast have been reduced and reduced again and again, even to the point that the tea tax in Zhejiang Province, which is rich in tea, is only a few taels of silver. Most of the belongings we have accumulated are stealing bricks and tiles from the foundation of the emperor. If the court has no money, it can only raise taxes, no matter how much the tax increases, it has nothing to do with the gentry, it will be the people who are exploited by corrupt officials. The officials forced the people to rebel, the more taxes were raised, the more thieves there were, and the more thieves there were, the more taxes had to be raised. ”

"By now, the Ming Dynasty is really almost dying, what have the vast majority of the gentry done for the Ming Dynasty, how many have been martyred for state affairs, and how many are running for the imperial court? In peacetime, he acted arbitrarily, but when the sky was falling, he was like a turtle with a shrunken head, it was the gentry who lost the Ming Dynasty, not the Ming Dynasty who lost the gentry! ”

"In other words, you say that Fu Ren has deviated from Wan Hoon's will, but you are so sure that Wan Hoon does not have the same thoughts in his heart as I do, like Fu Ren? It's one thing to live in Dalan Mountain, if Wanxun can recover Ningshao, the Tartars will inevitably encircle and suppress on a large scale, and then just count on the funding of those wall grasses, and how many soldiers can be trained? Sooner or later, we still have to sort out the taxes, and we can't get rid of this link at all. ”

"Four years ago, Fu Ren Zuo Wanxun designed to break the captive division, if it weren't for the idea of the party struggle in the past, how could it be used by Wang Sheng's dog thief, resulting in a big defeat. Now, Furen is working hard, and the recovery of eastern Zhejiang is imminent, but you have come up with this set of fallacies. Huang Taichong, if you want to corrupt state affairs, don't want to involve me. After today, no matter whether you succeed or fail, you, a friend, I, Lu Yuding, can't climb high. ”

After that, Lu Yuding ripped off the corner of his shirt with a paper-cutting knife and threw it on the ground.

"Sending off!"

"I'll prove your idea wrong, Zhou Ming." Silently reciting the answer at that time, Huang Zongxi continued to devote himself to the reconstruction work.

To rebuild the Ming army in Dalanshan, we must first rebuild the old camp, and in addition, things such as training soldiers, opening up wasteland and tuntian, and collecting taxes should also be carried out step by step, and only after accumulating a certain degree of strength can we further consider the matter of recovering the lost land.

Relying on the money and grain obtained through various relationships during this time, Huang Zongxi and Wang Jiang discussed and felt that if the name was not right, it would not be good, and the first thing was to repair the old camp in Dalanshan to hoard food and train the army, and if there was an accident, it could also be used as a room for change.

When the Qing army encircled and suppressed, Tian Xiong used this as a line of action, until he set a fire before leaving, burning the camp. Fortunately, it was only burned, and the foundation was still there. In this way, with the money and food and Ding Zhuang in his hands, the work of building a house began as soon as possible.

"Taichong, I have thought about your plan after thinking about it, first to repair the camp, then to settle the fields, collect taxes, and then train the soldiers, and then recover the lost territory. When will this be achieved, I am afraid that Ning Shao will let Chen Wen capture it by then, can our recruits still be able to beat his hundred battles? ”

"I didn't think about meeting Chen Wenbing, and I wasn't confident enough to defeat those strong soldiers who were not even opponents of the Eight Banners of the Han Army. But we must have an army, and only then can we use the ancestral system of large and small to exert influence on him, so as to protect the people from being bullied by the warriors. But what you say makes a lot of sense, it's a bit too slow, so what do you think? ”

"I think, Taichong, it's better to take advantage of the initial momentum, and when the Tartars don't know anything about us now, take down the nearby Shangyu or Yuyao first!"

………………

The old camp on Dalan Mountain began to be repaired, and the work of measuring acres of fields in the occupied area of the Ming army in Zhejiang Province also showed a certain degree of results.

Now in Chen Wen's hands are the six prefectures in Zhejiang and Yushan County in Guangxin Prefecture in Jiangxi. Yushan County is now a battlefield where the two armies clashed, so it will be put aside for the time being. After a month and a half of time for the other six prefectures, the small basins adjacent to the county seat of these four prefectures have been measured, and they have begun to enter the mountainous area to measure the fields between the mountains; The two prefectures of Jinqu are located on the Jinqu Basin, and there is a lot of land, even if many of them are already military fields, and there are already exact figures, but the overall measurement work is still continuing.

However, although it will take a month or two before the estimated acres are completely measured, the harvest is still quite large.

Chen Wen's intention in measuring the acres of land this time was to further clarify the land endowment, and because of this, the local gentry would object, and Huang Zongxi even debated fiercely with him before brushing his sleeves away. Under pressure, relying on the overwhelming superiority in the strength of these six provinces, the measurement work was continued, and as a result, it was found that every gentry who enjoyed preferential treatment was evading taxes, and even almost these two words could be omitted.

Colluding with local officials to write yellow books on fragile paper, in order to make the number of acres into an unclear bad account. This is the most basic and practical means. In addition, many means such as sprinkling, trickery, and false impersonation are not clear at all if they are not re-measured.

In fact, even if it is measured, those landlords also have some other means, but for the Ming Army in Zhejiang, the entire area of the six prefectures has already been surveyed and mapped, and each area is measured by the most reasonable method under today's science and technology, and some methods such as confusion have little effect.

So far, in these six prefectures, every gentry has been using the preferential exemption policy to avoid taxes on more land, which is less than double and more than ten times the normal number of preferential and exempted fields, and the taxes on these fields have begun to be reflected in the autumn tax of the seventh year of Yongli.

"So far, the autumn tax collected has more than quadrupled compared to the sixth year of Yongli. If nothing else, this number will continue to increase over the next two months. ”

The autumn tax of the sixth year of Yongli ended in February of the seventh year of Yongli, that is, before the suppression of the four provincial capitals, and at that time the occupation area of the Ming army in Zhejiang was only Jinhua Mansion, the Chuzhou Prefecture of two counties and the Quzhou Prefecture of the three counties in the west. And due to the fierce battle with Chen Jin in the previous year, Xi'an and Longyou counties in Quzhou Prefecture were also tax-exempt.

In this way, compared with the autumn tax this time, the territory of the six prefectures is still in the ranks of Xi'an, Jiangshan, and Changshan, and only the three counties of Xi'an, Jiangshan, and Changshan are still in the ranks of duty-free, and on the surface it is more than three times the land before. Even if only the land registered is counted, there are more than twice as much, and the rest are all fields that have not been taxed before, some of which have been restored, some of which have been concealed by small people, and even more of which have been illegally evaded by the gentry and large households by various means.

These acres of land were able to be re-collected and taxed, and Zhejiang Mingjun Group was naturally overjoyed, and it also strengthened its determination to measure the acres of land. Whether they are official or military generals, they all know very well that their future official positions, or even titles, will be linked to their merits in the process of following Chen Wen. And the more taxes, the larger the size of the army, and even if there are other forces after the world is decided, it will inevitably share the cake according to the strength of the army.

"Issued a decree to tell the gentry that the court gave them two ways: first, sign an agreement to promise that they would never evade taxes in the future, and if they did this again, they would use their family property to offset their taxes......

"Furen, the family property is tax-deductible, I'm afraid this will cause even more panic."

"Oh, Boyang, you should have listened to me."

During this time, Sun Yu received a lot of criticism and accusations from Shilin, but he always unswervingly supported the implementation of Chen Wenyi's policy. Chen Wen was very grateful for this, but he never said it, because the two had been friends for many years and had already tacitly understood it.

"They sign the agreement, and I will sign the agreement on it that they will not settle these old accounts, and that they will be exempted from all the taxes they owe, and they will use the seal."

After hearing this, Sun Yu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. There were too many old accounts to count, even if they were only counted after Jiashen, they were more than eleven years long, and the tax arrears were enough to force the gentry to the point of being ruined. When it spread to other areas that were still in the hands of the Manchus, it would inevitably be met with greater resistance, and it would be extremely unfavorable to regain the lost territory.

"I am also one of the things that use seals, and I think there will be more people who believe in it." Nodding, Sun Yu then asked, "What about the second?" ”

"Second, if they refuse to sign the agreement, they may recover all taxes owed from the date of the preferential exemption. If it is done, the matter is over; If you can't do it, you will get rid of your fame. I remember that the provincial magistrate could give an order, right? ”

"Yes, but isn't that a bit too much?"

"In troubled times, it is a time of war, and if you don't pay the taxes you should pay, you are funding the Tartars in disguise. For this kind of person, I feel that it is lighter to get rid of his fame. ”

"Hey."

Chen Wen's intention had been decided, and Sun Yu knew that he couldn't persuade this person, so he had to sigh. Fortunately, Chen Wen's next words made him a little more relaxed.

"Emperor Xian's preferential and exemption policy, I will reiterate it in the "Zhejiang Di Daily", as the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I will not violate this ancestral system, and the preferential exemption and dignity of the scholars will also be taken care of. But they also have to know that now the Tartars still occupy most of the land in China, and if the king is gone, the Tartars will be Tartars after all, and when the time comes, they will inevitably extend the evil methods such as enclosure, surrender, and escape that they are now doing in Beizhili to the whole country, and turn all the gentry and common people into their slaves, just like the tyrants. ”

In fact, the Manchu Dynasty's large-scale enclosures were largely confined to the Northland. Of course, Mancheng is actually another form of enclosure, and the Eight Banners Army in Mancheng is also carrying out small-scale enclosures in various places, but the crazy enclosure of land like in Beizhili in the early Qing Dynasty has not expanded to the whole country.

However, no one else knows about these things except Chen Wenke, even the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which is just used to scare and scare the gentry in the southeast.

"Then what are you going to do with this money, continue to expand the army, or make more hydraulic machinery?"

These two things are extremely important for the development of the Ming army in Zhejiang now, but Chen Wen does not plan to do so, at least the rich silver is not intended to be used here for the time being.

"I remember that last year, the city department earned more than 30,000 taels, and the salt class still has some income, right?"

"yes."

"The money that gets rich expands the scale of the salt pans and pushes down the price of official salt. In addition, it is necessary to vigorously crack down on illegal salt and squeeze down the market share of illegal salt, so that the salt tax can be raised. ”

This is an investment, and just as last year's confiscation of the property of the Manchu gentry was used to build hydraulic machinery and train more civil officials to carry out the campaign to measure acres, Chen Wen intends to use the money for more businesses that can make money and snowball up. Of course, some seemingly unprofitable businesses also cost a lot of money.

"In addition, the civil service training course should recruit more trainees for training, and those who have not been trained cannot become officials even if they are the top and first. Well, on the side of the officials of the health center, I will also ask the Martial Arts Academy to train more disabled officers and non-commissioned officers to prepare for the future recovery of lost territory. (To be continued.) )